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Friday, March 03, 2017

Snooky Pryor In This Mess Up To My Chest

Snooky PryorIn This Mess Up To My Chest Antone’s

Snooky Pryor was one of the earliest Chicago blues artists
to record after World War II, first as part of Snooky and Moody, and
later on his own for several labels including J.O.B. and Vee-Jay.
Influenced in his harp playing by John Lee ‘Sonny Boy’ Williamson, he
never had great commercial success with his initial recordings, although
many are classic Chicago blues performances marked by a crying vocal
style complemented by his crying harp playing. Antone’s has done a great
job in recording him, and has presented several remakes She Tried to
Ruin Me, and Judgment Day (from a live recording), along with nice
versions of Sonny Boy’s Bluebird Blues, and new songs like Bury You in a
Paper Sack, and Take It Easy Greasy. The late Luther Tucker adds his
cutting accompaniment to several tracks and guitarist Derek O’Brien does
a yeoman’s job elsewhere. Pinetop Perkins adds his typically solid
piano on several tracks, and Ted Harvey, one of the last great blues
drummers, adds to the music’s spirit. Another fine album of classic
Chicago blues.

This review appeared in the July-August 1994 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 193) and I likely received a review copy from Antone's Records. This may be harder to fine on CD or LP but is available as a download.

Snooky passed away October 18, 2006 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Here is Snooky performing his classic Judgment Day, from a New York City appearance in 1991.

1 comment:

The beauty of this song and its delivery is the simplicity...the great voice, the tasty harmonica and the driving beat...I can hardly listen to all the new three and four guitar rooted blues bands that try to out solo each other.